Enjoy Digital Ownership And Public Libraries While You Still Can – the rental model is coming for you

Michael E. Karpeles, Program Lead on OpenLibrary.org at the Internet Archive, spotted an interesting blog post by Michael Kozlowski, the editor-in-chief of Good e-Reader. It concerns Amazon and its audiobook division, Audible: Amazon owned Audible ceased selling individual audiobooks through their Android app from Google Play a couple of weeks ago. This will prevent anyone from buying Read more about Enjoy Digital Ownership And Public Libraries While You Still Can – the rental model is coming for you[…]

Scaling the cost of government programs using a cost-per-person price tag improves comprehension by the general public

Government policies often are presented with hefty price tags, but people often zone out as more zeros are added to the total cost. A new study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that rescaling the cost of programs can increase a person’s understanding of funding choices, which may improve how people participate in the policy debate. Read more about Scaling the cost of government programs using a cost-per-person price tag improves comprehension by the general public[…]

UK + 3 EU countries sign US border deal to share police biometric database

[…] LIBE committee member and Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer said that during the meeting last week, the committee discovered that the UK – and three EU member states, though their identities were not revealed – had already signed up to reintroduce US visa requirements which grant access to police biometric databases. In the UK, Read more about UK + 3 EU countries sign US border deal to share police biometric database[…]

Rufus and ExplorerPatcher make Windows 11 less onerous

[…]The latest beta version of Rufus, which in future will be version 3.19, has some interesting new additions. While it writes your ISO, you can optionally disable some of Windows’ more annoying features. It has the ability to turn off TPM chip detection and the requirement for Secure Boot, which should enable you to install Read more about Rufus and ExplorerPatcher make Windows 11 less onerous[…]

Hacker claims to have stolen data of 1bn Chinese from Shanghai police

A hacker has claimed to have procured a trove of personal information from the Shanghai police on one billion Chinese citizens, which tech experts say, if true, would be one of the biggest data breaches in history. The anonymous internet user, identified as “ChinaDan,” posted on hacker forum Breach Forums last week offering to sell Read more about Hacker claims to have stolen data of 1bn Chinese from Shanghai police[…]

After 95 years, will Disney finally lose copyright to Mickey Mouse? Or will they find another way to extend the right to do nothing but make money for it?

[…] Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain in the year 2024, almost 95 years after his creation on 1 October 1928 – the length of time after which the copyright on an anonymous or pseudo-anonymous body of artistic work expires. Daniel Mayeda is the ​​associate director of the Documentary Film Legal Clinic at UCLA Read more about After 95 years, will Disney finally lose copyright to Mickey Mouse? Or will they find another way to extend the right to do nothing but make money for it?[…]